


saved

by Inthesewords



Series: the long road [2]
Category: The Walking Dead (TV)
Genre: Hurt/Comfort, post-ep
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-18
Updated: 2020-10-18
Packaged: 2021-03-09 01:34:26
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,646
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27086404
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Inthesewords/pseuds/Inthesewords
Summary: “This place is a graveyard. Nothing left here for us but ghosts.”Post-ep for 5.08 “Coda”
Relationships: Daryl Dixon/Carol Peletier
Series: the long road [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1976890
Comments: 2
Kudos: 15





	saved

It’s a while before the shock wears off and the group is ready to leave Grady behind. Tyreese helped Carol settle into the back of a van where she could sprawl out. She sat there, propped up against the wall with her legs out, fading in and out of consciousness until the door opened to Daryl, sunlight shining in bright behind him. Carol squinted into the harsh light, and thought she made eye contact with him before he quickly scanned her and then looked down. He hopped in lightly, closing the door and setting his left side against the door, across from her but as far away as physically possible. The car started and Carol winced at the motion. Daryl glanced over but said nothing. Neither did she. After a minute, she settled for moving her right foot as far out as she could to nudge his. He retracted his leg in response, pulling his knees up and settling his arms on them.

She eventually fell asleep to the sound of silence.

___________________________________________

Carol startles awake, taking in her surroundings for a moment. She was still in the car, but apparently had been leaning on Daryl as she slept, as he was now right beside her in the back of the van.

“How ya feelin’?”

She groans. Checking in with herself, she was feeling like the walking dead. Rather than give that away, she asks “Where are we?”

Daryl ducks his head, squinting and looking out the small window in the back of the van, before glancing at her and looking back down at his hands. “The farm.”

She whips her head towards him, then regrets the fast movement, as everything hurts.

“We weren’t far and Maggie… Maggie wanted to lay her to rest here.” He grabs a water bottle from his right side and opened the top, passing it to her. “Got here a while ago, jus’... didn’t want ya to wake up here alone.”

She slowly takes the bottle from him, struggling to raise it high enough to her lips to swallow. He gently holds it up for her and tilts it back, and she takes a small sip. She looks at him as he puts the cover back on and studiously avoids her gaze.

“We’re at the farm,” she says. He nods to himself in response. She tries to shift herself up, wincing all the while, and he turns to help her.

“What? Whatdya need?”

She breathes deeply, steeling herself. “I guess it’s finally time to say goodbye.”

He looks at her then, before nodding again, and helping her out the back door.  
__________________________________________________________

By the time they make it out, the group has already dug the grave for Beth. Carol recognizes the area as the farm’s makeshift cemetery, although all that’s left is a lone weathered cross from one of the other memorials.

Her baby girl is six feet under her feet, with no way of anybody knowing anymore.

Maggie is on her knees, sobbing in front of the freshly dug dirt, Glenn beside her. Carol breaks free of Daryl’s supportive arm, slowly and carefully bending to her knees on Maggie’s other side. 

“Should we say a few words?” asks Tyreese, his deep tenor breaking the silence.

Carl starts them off, telling a story about Beth at the prison. Rick chimes in to talk about how she was with Judith. Glenn tells the story of how Beth encouraged him to propose to Maggie. After a while, the group falls silent, staring at her resting place.

“She was the best of us,” Carol said softly from Maggie’s side. Maggie reaches out and grabs Carol’s hand in a squeeze.

The rest slowly disperse. Carol remains with Maggie and Glenn on the ground; Daryl stands watch behind them, and Carl remains sitting off to the side, joining them in their silent vigil. Tara, having wandered off with the rest of the group, comes back after having checked out the house.

“This place seems like it was nice,” she starts. “Rick said that… it’s not overrun any more. There seems to be some usable stuff. Maybe we could…” she falters, having elicited no reaction from anyone. “Maybe we should stay here for a while?”

After a moment, Maggie drops Carol’s hand and shakes off Glenn, standing and turning to face Tara.

“This place is a graveyard. Nothing left here for us but ghosts.” She looks around at the group still standing there, silently daring them to disagree. “Beth wanted us to get Noah back to Richmond, and that’s what we’ll do. We take what we can and leave at first light.” 

With that, she stalks off towards the house. Glenn hastens to follow her, and Tara hesitantly goes after them.

Carl watches them go as Daryl kneels down next to where Carol remains on the ground. “C’mon. You need to rest. Cain’t be comfortable like that.”

She shakes her head and stares at the empty ground to the left of Beth’s grave, where her daughter must be. “You go. I’ll be fine here.” 

Daryl sighs, fingers drumming anxiously against his knee, before sinking down to the ground beside her. Slowly, he reaches for a stick and breaks it in two. Pulling out his shirt, he swiftly rips off a strip, before tying it around the sticks to create a cross. He sticks it in the ground to the left of Beth's grave, a new memorial for the rest that are buried there.

Carl clears his throat and scratches his neck, before standing up. “I’ll go see if I can find us… I’ll see what I can find us.” 

He leaves them where they remain, contemplating the ground.

_______________________________________

The sun is starting to set when Carl returns, finding Daryl and Carol exactly where he left them.

“We were able to salvage some food inside, if you’re hungry. But I brought some blankets to make you more comfortable.” He comes by Carol and lays them gently on the ground. “And also…” he pulls out a worn, raggedy doll. Daryl’s breath hitches at the sight. Carol stares at it before reaching up as much as she can with her left arm to take it from him, examining it closely.

Carl scuffs his foot on the ground. “Found it in one of the rooms. Thought you might want it.”

Carol nods, holding it to her closely while looking up at Carl. “Thank you,” she says quietly. She breathes it in for a moment, before leaning forward, struggling a bit before she places it on the ground besides the new grave. Daryl reaches for her to help her settle back. She shakes her head and looks at him, his hand on her arm. “It’s okay. I’m ready now.”

Daryl nods, putting his other hand to her back to try to ease her up, Carl hastening to her other side to do the same. She hisses, clearly in pain, and sways a bit until Daryl and Carl each have an arm around her, leading her towards the house.

The group spends a fitful night there before leaving right at dawn.

__________________________________________________________________

They’ve only been traveling two days, but Carol is convinced she’s back to being the burden she used to be.

Every rut in the road jostles her, and she can feel her broken bones rattling. The doctor at Grady sent her with pain pills, which she’d taken at first, but they just knocked her out completely. If there were an ambush, she’d be as good as dead- and worse, someone else could die trying to protect her.

The group stops for the day when one of the cars starts smoking, and everyone spreads out to do what needs doing. Rosita hops into the back of the van where Carol still sits. Rosita pulls out the pill bottle, rattling it at Carol before handing her the bottle of water. “It’s five o’clock somewhere,” she says with a small smirk, opening the bottle to pull out two pills. “Open up.”

Carol shakes her head. “I’m good.”

Rosita rolls her eyes. “You’re the furthest thing from good of any of us right now.”

Carol winces, smarting at how true Rosita’s words were. She shakes her head. “We don’t need another thing slowing us down.”

Rosita scoffs before shrugging and crawling back out of the van. She stops just outside the van to talk to someone. Carol closes her eyes before she feels him beside her. She opens her eyes to find him kneeling in front of her, pills in his hand outstretched.

“Please,” he says, softly. “You’re killin’ me.”

They maintain eye contact as she acquiesces and tries to reach up for the pills. He beats her to it, and instead she opens her mouth slowly as he places them on her tongue before holding the water up to her mouth for her to swallow. He shifts, sitting beside her stretched out legs.

“M’sorry.”

She readjusts, trying to see him better in the fading light. “What for?”

He side eyes her, looking her damaged body up and down as if to prove his point for him. “Took ya on a wild goose chase. And for what? Managed to getcha into two car accidents in the middle of the goddamned apocalypse… ya nearly died… and all we got to show for it’s another dead girl.”

She winces at that, closing her eyes tightly.

He continues. “You was right. We don’t get ta save people anymore.”

She opens her eyes to look at him, inching closer before cautiously placing her hand on his forearm. “No. I was wrong.” She leans her head down to try to catch his eye. “You still saved me.” She smiles and squeezes his arm. “Besides, nine lives, right?”

He smirks before shaking his head gently. “You’re runnin’ out of ‘em.”

She grins. “Nah. Still got life left in me.”

“Good.”


End file.
